Day 59 (Phase 2 stats and pics)

Here are my 60 day "results":

                               Day 1          Day 29           Day 59

Weight                    128              129                125

Body Fat                 31%             30%              29%

Chest                       33"              32 7/8"          33"

Waist                      34"               31"              30.5"

Hips                        41"               40.25"           39"

R Thigh                   22"               22"                21 7/8"

L Thigh                   21.5"            21.5"             21.5"

R Arm                    11.75"          11.5"             11 1/16"

L Arm                     11.75"          11.5"             11"

Here are the Day 1, 30 and 60 pics side by side:

I'm certainly happy with the progress, especially in the last 30 days.  I like that I can see ab muscles again and I feel a lot stronger.  I'm muscling through my double workouts and still hanging in there with the diet plan.  Overall I am pretty pleased.  The real question now is should I break out the fake tan and airbrushing/makeup for my 90-day pic? ;)

How cute is this?

Day 58

I stepped on the scale this morning and...125!  I hit my first goal weight and now weigh what I did when I got pregnant with Reese.  I'm pretty happy with that and it's nice to see the hard work paying off.  Got up and did my Cardio this morning (after a double yesterday) but still have Plyo this afternoon.  This will be the first time ever doing Plyo on a day with another workout so I anticipate it being pretty rough.  The necessity of a Friday-Saturday-Sunday doubles schedule because of my travel is going to be rough.  6 workouts in 3 days.  But it's worth it to get them all in and try to finish what I've started.  I also switched to the Phase 3 eating plan which is 20% fat/20% protein/60% carbs so that should help get me some more energy.

Day 56: end of Phase 2

Today is the last day of Phase 2.  Tomorrow I start Phase 3 Doubles (4 days a week of doubles).  Phew!

My first week back traveling went well.  Monday was a really long day as I arrived at 5:30, grabbed food and then spent 2+ hours getting apartment supplies and food and then moving in.  So I moved my stretch/rest day to Monday and didn't work out.  Tuesday I did Yoga and last night I did Plyo (just for fun, crazy, huh?).  Today I finished the week with Core Synergistics.  I definitely didn't feel great during Core today, probably not enough recovery time between Plyo and now.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  I'm hoping I can get into a good routine next week .  To fit in the doubles I'm going to modify the suggested schedule a bit and do doubles on Friday/Sat/Sunday and then Tuesday so I can avoid travel days (Mon and Thurs) since I have 6a flights both days, making doubles pretty impossible.  Hopefully it will work out well.  I'll be taking Phase 2 measurements this weekend so hoping there's still some progress.

Day 50

Week 7 is complete and I am onto Week 8 which happens to be a recovery/abs focus week.  I weighed in at 126 again this morning but was actually happy with that because I felt like I was eating a lot this week and was worried I would gain weight.  I was just hungry a lot.  I ate well, but just more calories than I had been.  Monday I start traveling again so hopefully I can get back in a good routine that works with that.

I think if I want to lose any more weight i'm probably going to have to cut out the Peanut Butter and the honey and maybe eat less fruit.  Even though it's good for me, the fruit has natural sugars.  We'll see.  i'm going to try switching to Almond butter for the PB as this has less calories/fat and use the honey less.  I know I've been slacking on eating vegetables so I need to add more of them to my daily meals, especially salads.

Halfway (Day 45)

After doing my doubles workout today and still being exhausted after both workouts (although I am able to make it through ARX at least without taking breaks anymore) I sometimes find it hard to believe I am already halfway through the 90 days.  I do feel like I've made progress and I certainly feel in better shape.  But I'm also glad it's not P45X because I don't feel "done" yet either.  Maybe I won't feel done after 90 days, either, but I at least hope to have made more progress in 90 days than I have in 45.  Many other bloggers claim the biggest results they saw were in the 2nd half so we'll see.  I am definitely finding myself hungry often so am eating more calories.  The last few days closer to 1800 or 2000.  I'm still eating clean and healthy and I figure if I'm hungry, I'm gonna eat.  Maybe it's because my metabolism is higher, maybe my body finally recognizes the extra workouts. I don't know.  I just hope it doesn't negate my hard work if my calorie deficit isn't as great as it has been.  Guess we'll see.

Day 43

Week 6 is complete.  The scale this morning said 126 so I feel pretty good about that, especially since I had some cheat meals last week for my anniversary and skipped one Cardio X workout because I was sick.  Today is Week 3 of Phase 2 Doubles.  I felt pretty good in my Cardio workout this morning although it still wears me out.  I thought about running instead of the Cardio but I think I may actually burn more doing the Cardio intervals (unless I ran 6 or 7 miles which I'm not yet in shape to do).  Food wise things are good.  Last night I tried a roasted Salmon dish from Clean Eating magazine and the family seemed to like it.  Tonight I'm making turkey chili and healthy cornbread.  I definitely prefer being able to cook and mix it up.  If I'm too busy and just have to rely on the staple meals it gets pretty boring.  Unfortunately that might be what happens when I start traveling again in a week but we'll see.

Day 37/38

Yesterday was our 7th anniversary, a day I had been planning to celebrate with a cheat meal or dessert or something like that.  I woke up feeling rough, having caught the cold that the kids had last week.  I powered through Plyo yesterday anyway (although it was tougher than usual for sure) and we took the kids to Chili's for a "romantic" anniversary dinner :)  I celebrated with some chips & guac but stuck to just the chicken, shrimp and green peppers part of the fajitas and left the tortillas, cheese and other toppings for CK.  Today was supposed to be another doubles day but I just didn't feel good and with my head pounding I decided to skip the extra Cardio workout this morning and just do the back & biceps and ARX tonight.  I made it through and am hoping I will feel better tomorrow.  I also splurged on ice cream this afternoon since I didn't do dessert last night.  I am calling it my cheat weekend although I think I minimized the damage pretty well by eating light outside of the cheat items.  Tomorrow it's back to normal (i.e., CLEAN).  To be honest, the ice cream was ok, but not as great as I somehow thought it would be.  Maybe a great piece of milk chocolate or a slice of cake would have been better or maybe my taste buds really have changed.  I'm trying to cook more clean meals while I'm at home for another two weeks because turkey burgers and chicken breasts are getting old.  Hopefully I can keep that up once I'm back at work.

Day 36

Finally!  5th week weigh in this morning: 126.5!  Not sure whether the extra cardio from the Double routine was the trick or my body just finally accepted "the new reality" and stopped hoarding fat but woo hoo!  As I said in the beginning, my goal here was never to lose a ton of weight but when you're working out 9-10 times a week and eating like a saint for 5 weeks you kind of expect a little somethin' somethin', you know?

Did my first workout of the day this morning with Asher climbing all over me (made it just a tad more difficult) while CK and Reese slept in.  Remember sleeping in in our house is 7:30 :)  Tomorrow is my 7th wedding anniversary and for the last 30 days or so I have been planning to "cheat" or eat something unsanctioned.  First it was a cheat day, then I revised it to a cheat meal and, honestly, now that I'm seeing great progress in both inches and pounds, I think it might just be dessert for the first time in awhile.  We'll see.

Day 31

Well I did my second day of doubles today.  It must be taking something out of me because my Plyo workout yesterday was the hardest I've had yet.  Thank God that one is on a single day.  Today's morning Cardio X was also tough but I am liking the increased intensity and feel pretty good.  Since I'm home I'm getting a little more creative with my meals, trying to cook some recipes from Clean Eating magazine that I've been saving for awhile.  I still have my staple meals- Fage and banana, Shakeology/milk/frozen fruit, sandwich thin/turkey burger/string cheese, grilled chicken and veggies, etc. but it's nice to branch out now and then.  I made some homemade granola bars that turned out pretty well.  The kids like them so that's a plus.  And home means more time to make egg white omelets in the morning.  Had one with spinach and goat cheese today- yummy!

Tomorrow is Yoga which is always a tough (and long) workout so hopefully I'm eating well enough to fuel me through it.  I want to get leaner (which likely means eating a caloric deficit) but I don't want to bonk.

30 day (Phase 1) Results

Here are my 30 day "results":

                               Day 1          Day 29
Weight                    128              129
Body Fat                 31%             30%
Chest                       33"              32 7/8"
Waist                      34"               31"
Hips                        41"               40.25"
R Thigh                   22"               22"
L Thigh                   21.5"            21.5"
R Arm                    11.75"          11.5"
L Arm                     11.75"          11.5"

So, as you might imagine, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of weight change and was hoping for a bit more reduction in body fat.  However, I am using a 10 year old Tanita body fat scale that is likely not all that accurate so who knows.  I am pleased with the waist reduction as, in truth, that's probably the place where I had the most to lose.  That's really the only difference you can see in the pictures above (Day 1 on the left, Day 30 on the right).  I certainly hope for more dramatic results at 60 days and have heard/read online that many people don't see true results until 45-60 days (especially if you start the program not really overweight as I did).  I certainly feel a lot better than I did 30 days ago.  My energy is more consistent, I am stronger and in much better shape.  I'll take it.

I started Phase 2 today and that means Doubles.  I did Cardio X for the first time this morning and then have Chest, Shoulders & Triceps and ARX tonight.  I was looking forward to Cardio X because it's one of the few workouts that I haven't done yet.  I realized, however, that I actually have.  Cardio X is 15 mins of Yoga followed by Kenpo moves, Plyo moves and then some Core Synergistics moves.  Don't get me wrong, I was sweating for sure and it was a good workout, but nothing new.